SEALed With Love (DiCarlo Brides book 2) (The DiCarlo Brides) (33 page)

Sage rolled behind some bushes, freezing in the jacket she’d snatched from the sofa as they passed through the living room. She counted the seconds as if they were minutes, waiting for another sound, watching for the movement of Joel crossing the yard, but saw nothing.

Time crept by on cat feet and she held her breath, anxious for some indication of what was to come. She stowed the gun in her jacket pocket, keeping her hand on it, and huddled in the snow for a long moment before checking the text messages in Joel’s inbox.

They were from Blake.
Mick was released today. They searched his house, but there was no evidence of his being the stalker.

And
, Perp is still at large, take precautions. Sheriff said your engagement could be enough to set him off.

A chill went down her spine that had nothing to do with the cold air.

Something cold and hard pressed against the back of her head. “Hey, there, Princess. How about if you stand real slowly.” A strong hand grabbed her upper arm and pulled her back against a firm chest, then wrapped tightly around her neck so she was pinned against him.

She didn’t have to ask who it was. She recognized the voice. “Damon. What are you doing?”

“I’ve come for what’s mine. You can’t think I’d let you be with him, could you? You know you belong to me. You’ve always belonged to me, since before we first met.” His face came around to her from behind, his voice low in her ear. “I know you believe in fate, in the stars. You’re the one for me, Sage. You always have been.”

When he’d interviewed with her in July he’d mentioned running into her at a spa convention. She’d pretended to remember him, but hadn’t. “Damon, you’re scaring me.” It was the gun pressed into the base of her head that scared her the most, and wondering what happened to Joel. Shouldn’t he have stopped Damon by now? Where was he? Was he okay? Had he been hit? Killed?

“Don’t be scared, sweetheart. I’ve come for you. We’re going to be happy together. I’ve waited too long to show myself. You just need a little space from him to come to your senses. He’s always around, making it hard for me to show how much I love you.”

She shivered in revulsion; he’d seemed nice. How could she have been so wrong about him? “Then why are you holding a gun to my head?”

“It’s the only way he’ll ever consider letting you go.” He nuzzled the side of her neck, sniffing there. “He’s addicted to you, like I am, but you’re mine.”

Joel’s heart nearly pounded out of his chest as he thought of the man getting his hands on Sage. He moved to the brush where he’d told her to hide and nearly lost his breath when he saw her pulled tight against Damon’s chest. It only took a heartbeat to recognize the masseur, and his heart rose to his throat in that heartbeat. 

He snuck up behind the two of them, ignoring the way he was starting to shiver in the cold, the snow crumbling into his shoes and chaffing his bare ankles. He heard Damon talking to her and grew even colder as he heard the last sentence.

“You’ll always be mine.”

“Drop the gun.” Joel’s voice was low and as cold as the air around them—and it filled Sage with a relief.

Damon startled and twisted, putting her body between him and Joel. “No way. She’s mine, and if I can’t have her, neither will you.” He pulled back harder on the arm wrapped around her throat, making her choke a little. “I don’t think you’re willing to let her die, so you’ll let us go safe and sound.”

Sage felt her whole body shake at the thought that Damon would rather see her dead than with Joel. “You tried to kill him with Mick’s car.” Her heart sped to a gallop, her hands began to shake and her breathing became ragged as another panic attack hit her. She would be helpless in his grasp once the panic took over. What would she do?

There was a low chuckle. “That idiot was making a real pain of himself in the spa. I wanted to get rid of him—and if I could be rid of both Mick and Watts at the same time, all the better. But that was when Watts was just a thorn in my side, making me stay a step back. Now he’s brainwashed you into thinking you care about him, it’s time for him to go.”

“You’ll never get away alive,” Joel said, his gun pointed at Damon, his hands steady. He circled around them, making Damon keep shifting so she was between them.

Sage knew he’d been in bad situations before; he was far more used to high stakes. He would get them out of this, somehow. He had to—but if he couldn’t, she wasn’t going to let him die because he was protecting her. Nausea churned in her gut and she fought to keep air moving in and out of her lungs. Tears streaked her face but she tried to stay in the moment, tried to focus on Joel and the hard, cool-headed expression in his gaze.

“That’s okay, neither will you—or her, if you push me.” Damon shifted further behind Sage, using her for cover.

“Sage, how are you doing, baby?” Joel asked without taking his eyes off of Damon.

“Don’t call her that. She doesn’t belong to you,” Damon snarled, he yanked her tighter to him, his gun sliding along her head until it made contact an inch or two behind her temple.

“Yes I do.” Sage’s words were barely more than a whisper, but she felt them, believed them all the way to her core. “I belong to him in a way you could never understand.”

“No. You’re mine.” Damon’s voice became fevered. “I loved you before you ever met him. You belong with me.”

“You’re both wrong,” Joel said, circling around them, forcing Damon to turn as well to keep Sage between them. “Sage belongs to herself. She’s strong and independent, and she has
razor-sharp elbows
.”

With that reminder, Sage pushed past the terror that was causing tears to roll down her face. She took advantage of the adrenaline causing havoc in her system and remembered what Joel had taught her. She brought her left elbow down into Damon’s ribs, lifting her right hand to push the gun barrel away from her head. She stepped on his insole and when he reflexively loosened his grip—just a little bit—she bent forward to kick at his knee, but didn’t get a good angle. Still, it knocked him off balance and he slipped on the snow and the hand holding the gun dropped to the side, though he didn’t release her.

Sage managed to get to the gun in her pocket, but rather than cocking it and turning it on him—which would have been nearly impossible at this angle and proximity anyway—she slammed it into the side of his head, making his arm loosen even more.

Joel pulled the trigger and Damon slumped over her, pushing them both into the snow. Panic took over as her face planted in a drift, making her hyperventilation even worse as she struggled to breathe. The warm wetness trickling along her head and neck didn’t help as she realized it was his blood.

Damon’s weight was lifted off of her as the sound of sirens split the air. Police, fire and ambulance sirens all blared, moving closer.

Joel grabbed Sage and pulled her into his arms, checking her for wounds. “Are you okay, is it all his blood? Did he hurt you?” There was panic in his voice as his hands skimmed over her arms and face.

“I’m fine, I’m not hurt.” Tears poured down her cheeks and she fought to break through the lump in her throat.

Joel held her tight as if he could cocoon her inside himself, ignoring the blood on her coat. “Oh, baby, I thought I was going to lose you. I couldn’t stand it if he’d hurt you. You’re everything to me.” He pressed kisses to her face as the sirens stopped in front of the house and men piled out of the vehicles.

Sage sobbed in his arms, clinging and fighting for breath as the panic she’d managed to deal with until now finally took over completely.

Joel scooped her up, pressing her against his still-bare chest and carrying her around the front of the house, away from the flames as the firemen hooked a hose to their tanker truck.

“Women’s voices called out to them as her sisters ran through the snow to the emergency vehicles.

A deputy hurried from his car, carrying a blanket, and wrapped it around Joel and Sage. “What happened?”

“It was arson. He was after Sage.” Joel grasped the blanket with his fingers and wrapped it tighter around them both without dropping her. “He was going to shoot her, I had to—” He broke off and brushed a kiss across Sage’s head as her sobs strengthened.

EMTs arrived and escorted the two of them to the ambulance while the deputy took a look around back to check on Damon.

Jonquil, Rosemary and Lana all arrived out of breath and with eyes wide enough to catch bull frogs.

“What happened? Are you hurt? Did he shoot you?” Lana asked, grabbing Sage’s arm.

“She’s fine, really. Just cold and freaking out. Give us a minute in the ambulance to get the coat off and look for injuries.” His voice was hard with an edge of anxiety.

“I’m fine. Really,” Sage said between heavy, panicked breaths.

Sage held onto to Joel as he stepped into the ambulance, refusing to let go while they checked her blood pressure and asked her if she had any injuries. She shook her head, and tucked her face into Joel’s neck, smelling his unique scent, even under the growing stench of smoke that poured off of the house.

Later, when the shock had subsided a little, they had given a statement to the deputy and her half-sisters had led both of them back to the family house, Sage soaked in a hot tub of water, fragrant bubbles up to her chin, feeling numb inside but finally warm again. It wasn’t as good as Joel’s hot tub—which was probably a twist of melted plastic by now—but it would do. She felt totally wrung out from the stress of the night, and the long day they’d had in Denver didn’t help. She lifted her hand to look at her ring again. It glittered and shone under the bathroom lights, and she remembered the love and rightness in Joel’s eyes as he’d slid it onto her finger in the shop that afternoon.

She focused on those feelings, trying to blot out the horror of the fight and the fire. She’d thought it was all behind them before, or at least hoped it was, but it hadn’t been. Now she kept reminding herself that this was real and it wouldn’t happen again. Damon was dead and couldn’t hurt her anymore.

It seemed like forever since Joel had helped her get the blood off her back, then settled her in for a long soak in the tub. He’d made sure she was okay, then returned to his place to talk to the fire chief.

When she was looking all prune-ish, he finally entered the bathroom carrying a glass of juice and shut the door behind him. “How are you doing, baby?”

Sage tried to decide. She was still a little fuzzy and hadn’t been able to put all of the details in order in her mind. “I’ve been worse.” At least she was warm and clean, but she would have nightmares for a long time.